Are you covered when you’re working abroad?

Claiming for damaged or stolen laptops, phones, tablets etc (‘portable equipment’ as insurers call it) isn’t usually a problem.

But a claim can come unstuck when your insurer asks “where were you at the time?” and your answer isn’t what they’re expecting. In other words, you weren’t where your policy said you could be.

If taking your business bits out and about is risky anyway, how do you make sure you’re not scuppering a potential claim by going where you’re not covered?

Gone mobile

As usual, policy documents are your friend.

To find out what’s what, dig out your ‘schedule’. This details the cover you have.

Now look for the words ‘geographical limits’. Each type of business insurance has them – they specify where in the world you’re covered.

Yours might say, for example, your professional indemnity insurance geographical limits are EU. As you might guess, this means you can work anywhere in the EU.

(For now at least. We’ll keep you posted on insurers’ post-Brexit thinking.)

There's more about professional indemnity geographical limits here.

Costa lot

However, if you have more than one type of business insurance, don’t assume there’s one rule for everything.

Those geographical limits can change depending on your insurer and your specific cover. Your professional indemnity might be EU but your portable equipment might only be UK.

If that’s the case, take your laptop to Spain for a job and your work’s covered but the laptop isn’t. If it’s damaged or goes missing, you’re paying for a new one.

Cost a little

The good news is, extending your equipment cover to take care of it might only cost a few pence a month.

In fact, the difference between insuring your stuff in the UK and anywhere in the world might only be £10 or £20 a year.

That’s got to be a better bet than stumping up for everything yourself.

If you’d like to chat about portable equipment cover, give us a call on 0345 222 5378. Or click here.

Image used under license from Shutterstock.